Now a few interesting ideas from FacileThings web app about routines (that’s how they call repeating/recurring tasks):
The advanced options allow modifying the way the dates are calculated and how the recurring actions are generated.
Inactive until : Allows you to “hide” the action generated by the routine in the Tickler File until a few days before the scheduled day for its execution, so that it does not distract you when it is not yet necessary.
Starts : Allows you to set a date from which the actions of the routine will begin to appear. The first action will appear on the first date equal or later than the one indicated that matches the specified recurrence.
Ends : It allows you to indicate how long this routine should be generating actions. You can define a specific number of ocurrences, or an end date.
Calculated . There are certain recurring events that, when delayed, must delay the next occurrence, such as “vaccinate the dog every three months.” If you delayed a couple of weeks the last vaccine, the next should one be three months after you put it on. For this class of actions, use the calculated on completion option.
Generates . The usual thing is to generate only one recurring task, so that the Calendar does not get filled with tasks that can create distraction. However, sometimes, due to planning issues, it is interesting to simultaneously have all the occurrences of a routine for the next week in the Calendar, so you don’t miss any appointment. Usually, if you do not skip the Weekly Review, generating all the actions for a month will not be necessary.
And here there’s an explanation about the last feature:
In some cases, due to planning issues, it’s interesting to simultaneously have all the occurrences of a routine for the next week in the Calendar, so you don’t miss any appointment.
We have added a new advanced option in the Routines programming section that will allow you to generate all the recurring actions of a routine during a week or a month. This can only be done with routines whose actions go to the Calendar and have a daily or weekly frequency (it does not make sense for routines with a higher frequency).
This option has three possible values: Generates one item, generates item for a week, generates items for a month. The recommendation is to always generate a single item, except for those events that you really need to take into account when consulting the Calendar during the week. Normally, if you don’t skip the Weekly Review, generating all the actions for a month will not be necessary.
Once you have generated all the recurring actions for a week or a month, there will always be the same number of actions of that routine in the Calendar. When you mark the first one on the list as done, a new action will be automatically added at the end, and so on.
Cards can be set for new copies to be created at any specified time: daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. No excuse now if you forget your mother’s birthday present.
Repeated cards will include members, descriptions, checklists, etc. from the parent card, saving you even more time.
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Regularly Scheduled 1:1 Meetings: Managers and members of the HR team that hold regular 1:1 meetings, check-ins, and reviews can set up repeating cards to not only remind team members of an upcoming meeting, but also to have a place where people can list items to discuss during a meeting, or make note of any takeaways.
End Of Month Bookkeeping Reminders: When it comes to closing out the books each month, finance and operations teams can have cards created with all of the steps required to make sure no money gets lost in the metaphorical sofa.
Automating Repeating Reports : Speaking of money, sales teams that need to put together weekly, monthly, and annual sales reports can have those tasks added to their to-do list with the Google Sheets file already attached to the card.
Regular Content Creation for Marketing: Marketing teams that send out regular newsletters or publish blog posts can have cards created with the content manager responsible for the newsletter already added to the card, and a checklist of everything that needs to get done to send a successful marketing email.
IT teams that regularly enforce password changes can keep track of what passwords need to be updated, minimizing the risk of security breaches.
@coa
With the addition to recurring tasks, this is another use case for Webhooks as notification for a given task.
eg. On every X days, send Webhook to CRM to perform a lookup, generate PDF for billing or to send off an email to all customers in CRM with criteria posted from Infinity.
Thanks for being active with new ideas & suggestions on how we can improve Infinity further.
Recurring tasks feature will be a part of ‘Automations’ which are not really tied directly to the ‘core’ of our product, which is bases more around ‘data creation and insert’ rather than activity.
Once we finalize the ‘core’, which includes a couple of more big feature (such as Advanced Permissions, Mobile apps, reminders, optimization/performance/speed updates, Gantt View), we will most likely focus on Automations.
I’m sorry if this is not too exact, but I hope we can work on that from 2020 (New Year).
Hi @coa,
that´s fine for me. I just wanted to check, because there was already an ETA given. I´d rather have the functions working well and wait a year longer than having everything half-backed. So take your time!
I´m using infinity more and more and am still impressed by what it can do already. Though it takes some time to get a hang on what is and how it is possible.
Thanks for the Zapier receipe, but it would be nice to have this natively. It’s a fundamental part of ANY calendar system I’ve ever used, even dating back to the 1970’s systems. That the Infinity calendar can’t handle a recurring date is baffling to me.
Note that this item IS on the Infinity roadmap, but it’s way at the bottom of the list. If anyone feels this is worthy (and I encourage you to do so!), please up-vote it! We also need this functionality.
I find zapier really confusing in many ways. If I start using them for things like this will they start charging me? I just don’t have the time to investigate their functions and learn the their systems.
So having this native would be a fantastic idea.
This really sucks. It can be a simple Recurring option within the attributes where it lets you select either days on calendar or weekly, monthly, yearly…etc.
Any word on when this is going to be implemented?
We are actually planning to add recurring tasks in the near future. As it’s one of the most requested features on our roadmap (at this moment, it’s the feature with the most votes), we’ll definitely take that into consideration and my guess is that we will start working on it quite soon (after we complete the current priorities which you can also see on our roadmap).
If you haven’t already, feel free to take a look at our Public Roadmap and vote for recurring items and other features you deem important. It means a lot to us to hear your voice so we can better understand what features our community needs the most.
I saw that the updates haven’t been updated since April…
Also, is there any word on expanding the roadmap to include everything that is in the community? There really could be a full migration to be everything native Infinity, and maintenance of this site could be phased out. It would be nice to just keep everything in one place.
Totally agree here, would love to see everyone in these forums added as comment only users on the user voice tab, that way the ideas become the topics just like they are here. Plus need another drop down list selection for bug reports. Is there anything else?
It is now the end of March 2021. No updates for multiple months. I am shocked this feature doesn’t exist - especially after being promised now it looks like for almost 3 years. Is there an ETA?
Hi @andy1, welcome to the community! If you look at our roadmap, you’ll notice that this is something we are currently working on. Recurring items will be a part of a larger ‘automation’ feature which we are currently building.
This is an incredibly challenging feature to implement, possibly one of the most demanding things we’ve ever had to implement in Infinity. That’s why I’m afraid I don’t have an exact ETA for you as it’s not such a straightforward process, but this is currently one of our biggest priorities.
